Blizzplanet Preview – Garwulf’s Corner: An Odyssey into Diablo and the World Beyond the Video Game

A month ago, I reported that Robert B. Marks plans to launch a book titled: “Garwulf’s Corner: An Odyssey into Diablo and the World Beyond the Video Game”. It is slated to ship on October 2014. A couple days ago, Robert shipped to me a review copy with a signed dedicatory.

Any veteran Diablo fan will no doubt remember the old good days when multiplayer games began to flourish. Players were still using 56Kbps dial-up internet connection services such as AOL, and CompuServe. Early DSL was running 128 to 256 Kbps and it was expensive. Diablo had become a success, and Blizzard Entertainment launched Diablo II on June 29, 2000.

It was back then when a geeky gamer and writer age 24 managed to sell his first published story. Robert B. Marks wrote probably one of the first Video Game-based eBooks for Blizzard Entertainment based on the Diablo universe …. Diablo: Demonsbane. It was published on October 2000. Pocket Books published the first Blizzard eBook in an era where eBooks were a struggling experiment. The first eBook readers from 1997-2006 were not well-received. Not until the big boom when the first Amazon Kindle device shipped on 2007.

Back on 2000, Robert B. Marks also began to write a bi-weekly column titled Garwulf’s Corner for Diabloii.net (now found at diablo.incgamers.com).

He wrote about Diablo II, about gaming, literature, movies, hackers, AI, and other topics. In a time where there weren’t that many fansites or gaming websites with similar discussion topics other than news, reviews or strategy guides.

Garwulf’s Corner earned many readers over the few years it lasted. Even today, the archive can be read online. Those veteran Diablo fans can now get this piece of history in printed form.

The book contains a 3-page introduction written by Robert B. Marks, all 52 articles of Garwulf’s Corner, three articles that were never published in the Blurred Edge magazine, and an article the author wrote after Diablo III was announced.

Garwulf’s Corner: An Odyssey into Diablo and the World Beyond the Video Game will be published by Robert’s owned Legacy Books Press for a retail price of $19.99 US ($22.95 CAN/AU, €16.95, £ 15.95). Review copies are now available: contact(*)legacybookspress.com

If you haven’t read Diablo: Demonsbane, I recommend to get the Diablo Archive which reprinted it in physical form.

At the dawn of the 21st Century, the video game industry experienced a period of wild creativity, fighting for recogniztion as an art form while making the transformation into a media juggernaut. And as it did, Garwulf’s Corner was there.

One of the earliest, if not the first, video game issues columns on the internet, Garwulf’s Corner ran every two weeks from 2000 to 2002 on Diabloii.net, Written by Robert B. Marks, author of Diablo: Demonsbane and The EverQuest Companion, it explored everything up to and including Diablo, the birth of artificial intelligence, hackers, literature and movies, and the video game’s struggle for legitimacy.

Collected here for the first time in print — whith new introductions and updates — are all 52 installments of Garwulf’s Corner, along with the three columns written years later for the unpublished Blurred Edge Magazine, the holiday issue that never was, and the author’s final word (so far) on Diablo III and Diablo in general. Insightful, controversial, witty, and thought-provoking, Garwulf’s Corner is a journey into the world of video games that is still relevant today.

Garwulf’s Corner also explores the following:

The video game’s struggle for recognition and legitimacy as an art form.

How we play video games and what it means for our lives and society.

The birth of serious video game journalism

The ethics and dimensions of video game hackers, DRM, and piracy.

Issues such as sexism in video games, and how we should face them.

“It was amazing to be there at the birth of serious video game journalism,” says Marks. “When the first installment was published, video game coverage basically consisted of reviews, previews, and strategy guides – writing about issues back then felt quite a lot like being a voice in the wilderness. When the last installment was published in 2002, video games were something that people gave serious thought to and were coming to recognize as art. It was an honour and a privilege to be even the smallest part of that.”

Robert B. Marks is an author, writer, editor, trained historian, and publisher. He is the author of Diablo: Demonsbane, The EverQuest Companion, The Traveler on the Road of Legends, and the co-author of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Agora. Since 2013 he has also worked in public relations and community outreach for Darksword Armory.

In his spare time, Robert makes mead, practices German Longsword, plays Magic: The Gathering, and very rarely (and very badly) plays the violin. He lives in Kingston, Ontario, with his wife Johanna.

Available on October 31, 2014 at bookstores and online.

ISBN: 9781927537107 Price: $19.99 US

Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.

Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.

I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)

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